Disaster relief fund to help farmers living on the edge
"I had just got the cows up in the barn when it let loose," she said recently. "Then it was more like being in a hurricane than a thunderstorm. We had plum-sized hail and 70-plus mile an hour winds."
The microburst lasted just 10 minutes, during which the damaging winds and torrential rains pummeled the farm "in all directions," she said. The wind and hail ripped the foliage off vegetables, destroyed the rye field, blew the roofs off their barns and smashed the animal shelters.
"It was very devastating to see the whole farm flattened," she said.
Then the storm was over, but taking stock of and repairing the destruction left in its wake had just begun for
They weren't sure how to proceed, but they wrote about the farm's disaster on their website and asked for help.
"Our cash flow will suffer from the vegetable, crop, and livestock losses, but we have faith in our friends, customers, and the healing of time," the Holmeses wrote on their website.
One month later, it's clear to
"We haven't recovered everything we've lost, but we feel we've made a lot of friends," she said. "And the support has been wonderful."
Also, she is pleased the devastating storm that hit their farm has been the impetus to launch the
"I'm happy we were the push to get it going,"
The new fund is something the
"The recent storm at Misty Brook incited us to make it happen," she said. "With the small scale of
"There is an application process for this," Sabina said. "We aren't going to be just hearing about a fire and throwing money everywhere. It's geared towards farms that really need it, and farms that are using
She said that means about 600 farms in the state would qualify to receive disaster relief funds through the organization.
"It doesn't limit the pool a whole lot," she said, adding farms struck by disaster, including "freak storms, definitely fires, any kind of natural disaster, flooding, ice storms," would be eligible to apply.
According to Sabina, the relief fund has been getting some traction in the past few days.
"It's happening. It's growing quickly," she said. "We're excited to help in a more meaningful way than just sharing a farm's bad news. We can make a difference by leveraging our nonprofit status and our philanthropic community."
For
"We will weather the storm,"
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